Okay, I'm finally getting around to writing something about my trip with the band last weekend.
Well, to summarize, it was a good weekend for the band. We played to over 500 enthusiastic patrons who came out to see us either in Grand Junction on Friday or Steamboat Springs on Saturday.
I mentioned in a previous entry that we bought a fog machine that worked for all of 45 minutes and then it died. It was under warranty and I sent it back to the manufacturer for warranty repair, but it wasn't going to be back in time to go with us to Colorado.
Everyone was on the look out for a fog machine we could borrow, rent, or buy (like a cheap $20 Halloween fogger). I mentioned our situation to my brother and he immediately punched some digits into his cell phone and started talking to someone. I overheard part of the conversation: "What? You thought I said 'frog machine?' (raucous laughter) That's like a spud gun? (more laughter)"
It seems my brother has befriended some folks that operate a film production supply company that just happens to keep a number of foggers on-hand and their relationship with my brother was such that one of those fog machines was ours to borrow for free so long as nobody needed it.
As the weekend loomed closer, my brother called me and let me know it was a "go" and I could go pick up the fogger.
I tried to go get it Thursday afternoon, but I was late getting there and they had gone home already. So, I had to go Friday morning -- when we were supposed to leave -- and get it. I went early and got back to my house by 9:30. I cracked open the road case they gave me and inspected the machine. It was huge! They gave me an F-100 High End Smoke Generator. Probably 2-3 times larger than our fog machine (which isn't exactly small) and it had a 2.5 gallon tank for juice (our F-1250 has close to 1 gallon of juice capacity).
Thom and Daryn showed up shortly after I got back home and they were soon followed by Tim, Amanda (Tim's SO), Matt, and Juli. We put Daryn's car on our RV pad behind the fence and loaded all my equipment into the vehicles and headed out.
We were later leaving than we wanted. We had hoped to leave the valley around 10 and didn't get out until closer to 11:30 or noon, but we still made good time and arrived in Grand Junction shortly after 4 -- plenty of time to make it to a scheduled radio interview and then over to the club to set up.
This trip was also to be the innaugural performance of our new Infocus X2 video projector. Iodynamics subsidized the purchase of the projector -- they can use it when the band isn't using it, which is... most of the time. :-)
I went with Thom to the radio interview to "document" it with my video camera. The interview was fun.
Next, we went to the Mesa Theater and started setting up. There, we met Jake and "Super Tech" Jeff who were very helpful and fun to work with. Most noteably, they were patient with us and understanding that we didn't have all the tools and hardware we might have brought along.
I thought we'd be using their projector and our screen, but the Mesa's projector just was not bright enough to properly illuminate our screen and it was at a fixed location about 20 feet in front of the stage proscenium. It was clear we needed to use our projector, but I failed to bring anything to use to fly the projector. I was prepared to run to a hardware store and improvise, but Super Tech Jeff stopped me and we discussed some options. I mentioned we had used a milk crate with a stage clamp in the past and he procurred a milk crate and two extended stage clamps. We mounted the clamps each to a side of the crate and I hung the contraption to the first electric. This was okay, but I wasn't happy with the angle of the image because the projector is designed to shoot up - like when it's on a table shooting at a screen in a conference room. We would have had to crank the projector at close to a 45-degree angle to get it to hit the screen properly.
So, instead, I said I wanted to mount it upside-down on the bottom of the crate. Jeff gave me a couple tie-down straps and I strapped the projector to the bottom of the crate. While this worked well, I was worried and regularly inspected the projector during the show to make sure it was still secure in those straps. I had nightmarish visions of myself running and diving in an attempt save the projector from crashing on Tim's head in the middle of a song.
Fortunately, that didn't become reality. The projector stayed secured.
While the projector was secured and hitting the screen at an acceptable angle, the image was still wider at the top than at the bottom. I wasn't concerned, however, because one of the reasons we purchased this particular projector is that is has digital keystone correction.
But we couldn't get it to work. Tim and I tried all sorts of things to adjust the keystone correction. Finally, we connected a signal to the projector and Voila! the keystone correction adjustment became available to us and we made the image nice and rectangular.
After the projector and screen situation were taken care of, we moved toward soundcheck. After soundcheck, I walked up to the front of the theater, near the entrance. Outside, I could see about 8-10 people waiting outside for the doors to open. I joked to some of the staff that was a big crowd. One of them replied that there was a line halfway down the block. I laughed. Yeah, right!
Everyone in the band went out the back entrance in search of food. Jeff and Jake told us there was a mexican restaurant next door that had good food and would give us quick service if we explained we were playing at the theater.
When we rounded the corner, I saw it. There was a line extending down the street from the theater entrance. Of course, nobody knew who we were so I suggested we get in line. I wanted to ask someone in line, "So, are these guys any good?"
It's not that I was surprised there was a line. I guess I'm just cynical and expect that when we play a new venue or area that not many people will come out to see the show. Fortunately for us (and for those who came to see the show), the venue did a good job promoting the event.
The folks at the mexican restaurant did a horrid job of fulfilling our request for speedy service. The food was alright, but Thom was ready to explode by the time it arrived at our table. By the time everyone was finished eating, there was only ten minutes or so until showtime.
Thom had requested the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" be played before the first set, but I couldn't find it on my laptop. I knew it was there somewhere, but I simply couldn't find it. The radio DJ Thom had interviewed earlier in the day came onstage and introduced the band and then I had nothing to play. I ran and told Thom. He said to go ahead without it so Matt scrambled to start the beginning of Shine On You Crazy Diamond.
The output of the F-100 fog machine was impressive... a little too impressive at times. Thom mentioned he got caught a couple times inhaling when a big jet of fog shot out into his face. This made singing a bit of a challenge.
The crowd, roughly 250 people, loved the show. Everyone in the band was critical of the performance -- that it wasn't the bands' best -- but the crowd soaked it up. Grand Junction had a void where Pink Floyd tribute performances go and we helped to fill that void.
For the most part, our experience in Grand Junction was positive and I think I speak for the whole band when I say we're excited about going back sometime.
Alright. It's getting late. I'll have to relay my account of our second show another time.
Here are some pictures that Amanda took that I tweaked up in The Gimp. A full list of pictures from this show can be seen on the SoN site.
 A great shot of Juli |
 Learning To Fly |
Fearless - the encore |
Tim - Comfortably Numb |
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